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The impact is all very negative, as you would expect. “Canada’s back?”. More like Canada’s disappearing under Harper.

Programs to 6 different countries will be specifically affected by this bit of petty vindictiveness by Harper, Jason Kenney, Bev Oda, and the rest of this disgraceful lot. Specifically, key partners of KAIROS in Columbia, Sudan, The Congo, Indonesia (which, by the way, has a picture of Deepak Obhrai, the Parliamentary Secretary to Foreign Affairs, attending the opening of and being the guest speaker of the first ever human rights school there in July 2009, funded with KAIROS/CIDA money), and Mexico. You can read for yourself the different specifics of the programs; […]

I’ve seen this story of this unemployed civil servant (who goes by the moniker of OttawaSteph at her blog) who has had a run of bad luck and who faces eviction in less then 2 weeks if she can’t come up with the money to pay her landlord. Briefly, she’s been looking hard for work, but nothing so far – EI has only covered the basic necessities, not the rent. She’ll not only be thrown out of her home; but she’ll lose her pet cats – her family more or less – in the process.

In desperation, she’s asked the internet/blogosphere for help in coming up with the money, […]

#1 Bad optic – The Conservatives will continue to boycott the Afghanistan Committee investigating the Afghan detainee situation, meaning there will be no quorum and no formal hearing, renewing the charges of this government trying to coverup and squelch the truth over this messy affair for them.

#2 Bad optic: That hasn’t stopped the opposition members from having witnesses testify ‘informally’:

According to the NDP, there are two witnesses scheduled for tomorrow: Amnesty International lawyer Paul Champ, and retired diplomat Gar Pardy. Here’s the explanation, courtesy of Paul Dewar’s office:

Champ is Amnesty’s lawyer in the case on detainees. He can speak on the information that led Amnesty and […]

This got passed on to me from the United Church of Canada Twitter feed (yes, I was a bit surprised they use Twitter). They’ve linked to a page over at KAIROS that lists seven things you can do to support KAIROS and try to let the federal Conservatives know you don’t appreciate or support their funding cuts.

I’ll note as an aside that not listed in the members of the Federal Cabinet to contact is Jason Kenney, the Minister of Immigration who set off the firestorm by claiming KAIROS Canada’s funding was cut because they were anti-Israel/anti-Semitic, so I’m slightly curious whether this page was made before Jason Kenney opened […]

I decided I’d try out whether the new release of WordPress 2.9 & its embedding movies/video is indeed easier to do then prior versions, while at the same time giving you folks a holiday treat: a version of “A Christmas Carol” not often seen these days on the television.

This is the 1935 British release, which as it so happens, was the first time “A Christmas Carol” was made in the “post-silent” film era. There are some moments where the script seems a bit corny – the actors seem to be trying too hard to be as literal as possible to Dicken’s original novel, but it’s still a fine version. […]

As I was hoping they’d do, the member churches that belong to KAIROS Canada are starting to push back against the federal Conservatives and Jason Kenney for his remarks that KAIROS Canada was stopped CIDA funding due to the organization being anti-Semitic or anti-Israel:

The United Church of Canada and other Canadian churches are demanding Prime Minister Stephen Harper explain why one of his cabinet ministers accused them of being anti-Semitic. The United, Catholic and Anglican churches are part of KAIROS, an aid group that was shocked to hear Immigration Minister Jason Kenney say its funding was lifted as part of the Conservatives’ effort to cut off anti-Semitic organizations. “It’s […]

KAIROS Canada has just issued a news release responding to Immigration Minister Jason Kenney’s statements that CIDA funding was cut to it because of the organization supposedly being anti-Israel/anti-Semitic. I’ve highlighted a main point (or two) in here amongst some other very relevant and troubling issues that KAIROS Canada has brought up. It appears that Minister Kenney is confusing 2 different organizations statements and positions:

The Minister of International Cooperation, Bev Oda, has been telling KAIROS, Parliament and the Canadian people that funding to KAIROS was cut because its work did not fit current Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) priorities of economic growth, food security and children and youth.

While I will talk about anything politically on here, I normally do not discuss matters to do with the Middle East, because in my experience, any attempt at discussing that rationally unfortunately eventually leads one to either getting called a “pro-Zionist” or an “anti-Semitic”. I am going to make an exception here today to discuss something that I find particularly galling: federal Immigration Minister Jason Kenney’s reasoning given over in Jerusalem for the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) cutting funding to KAIROS Canada, a multi-denominational Christian aid group that works for social justice causes.

According to Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, the reason that KAIROS Canada funding was cut was […]

Harper decided not to bother speaking at the Copenhagen Environmental Summit; he decided to send Environment Minister Jim Prentice instead to make Canada’s speech:

Gordon Brown, Nicolas Sarkozy, Angela Merkel, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad – and Jim Prentice? While other world leaders have taken to the podium this week to address delegates at the Copenhagen climate talks, Prime Minister Stephen Harper is sending his environment minister in his place.

Harper has other plans – he will join other leaders at a dinner hosted by the Queen of Denmark

Nice to see Harper is trying to groom Jim Prentice to the world stage.

If I had a vote for that (and yes, why don’t we also make it for Canadian Of The Year as suggested here), it would be without a doubt cast for Canadian diplomat/intelligence officer Richard Colvin. His brave decision to testify (in the face of Conservative government threats to the public service not to cooperate with the House of Commons Afghanistan Committee Commission or the Military Police Commission) helped to expose the cover-ups and political gaming of the Afghan detainees issue, and the Conservative government’s apparent disinterest (or worse) in making sure detainees who were turned over to the Afghanistan Secret Service weren’t tortured, as demanded by the Geneva Conventions. […]